March 26, 2012

FUEL

James Cameron enjoys making films. He's written and directed the two highest grossing films of all time: Titanic and Avatar, as well as a number of others. But filmmaking is not his first love.

This past weekend, the premier for the release of Titanic in 3-D was held in London. Mr. Cameron was not there with Kate Winslett, et al. Instead, he was with his team preparing to dive to the deepest point of the ocean -- Mariana Trench. The trench is >120 times larger than the Grand Canyon and more than a mile deeper than the height of Mt. Everest.

Mr. Cameron said this about his journey:

"Most people know me as a filmmaker, but the idea of ocean and exploration has always been the stronger driver in my life. This is the culmination of a lifelong drive, having first heard about it in the 1960s." Only two other people have ever been to the deepest part of the world, they traveled there in 1960 but only stayed for 20 minutes and could not see anything.

Mr. Cameron said this about the two activities (filmmaking and ocean exploration) he spends most of his time on:

"Hopefully I can do the two in parallel. Going to be turning my attention to Avatar 2 & 3 shortly. A lot of people who saw Avatar saw connections to the oceans. Everything I've seen underwater goes into my imagination."

Here's the key for me: James Cameron would love to spend every free moment of the rest of his life exploring the ocean if he could. But his greatest, biggest dreams require FUEL to make them possible. The same is true for us. Not many people can spend every waking moment doing whatever they want to do. Most of us aren't Richie Rich having inherited enough money to allow us to live whatever life we can imagine all the time. Mr. Cameron's movies FUEL his biggest dreams. Not just his movies, but the fact that they are the most successful movies in history. He clearly pours himself into something that is not his #1 passion in part so that he can pursue his #1 passion. In addition, he has found ways to combine the work that FUELs his passion with what he loves most -- in making Titanic, Mr. Cameron personally took more than 30 trips to the wreckage. This, in part, prepared him for what was likely the greatest day of his life yesterday.

Dream big. Find a vehicle that can FUEL that dream. Then pour your passion and all your excellence into FUELing that dream.